Change of Things Chapter 3

Slowly I came to, I slowly open my eyes to see a white ceiling. I try to move but my arms and legs are tied down and I do not have much strength.

“So you’re awake,” I hear a Russian voice say.

“W-who’s there?” I ask.

“My name is Violet,” the woman says walking up to the my field of vision, “you’re a lucky one Ms. Stark.”

“Lucky?”

“Yes, they vere able to remove all of the shrapnel from your body before it could kill you.”

“Why am I strapped down?”

“They...vell did something to you.”

“Did what!?” I yell beginning to panic.

“Ona spit, ser! My mozhem prodolzhit' eksperimenty!” I hear a male voice say.

“You better stay quiet girl,” Violet whispers as men walk into the room.

I let out an annoyed sigh, again really? How many f-ing times do I have to be kidnapped?

“Velcome Ms. Stark,” the man says, “my name is Vlad and velcome to your new home.”

“What kind of home is this? Do I always have to be strapped to a table?” I ask my sarcasm coming through.

“Of course not, you vere moving too much vhen ve vere trying to get zhe shrapnel out of your body,” Vlad says as some of his men untie me, “Vell ve also gave you somezhing else.”

“And what would that....be?” I look at myself to see I look stronger than I did before. Sure I lifted heavy metal and such but this is completely different.

“Ve gave you zhe super soldier serum,” he answers and my eyes widen in shock.

“w-what....but h-how?”

“Does not matter, Violet.”

“Yes sir?”

“Get her ready for zhe next phase of zhe experimentation,” Vlad says walking off.

“What!?” I yell.

Violet grabs me and I do my best to fight her off but seeing as she has three men with her I cannot escape them. They force me into another room where I see weird machines and what looks like the tube that Cell was in before Trunks and Krillin kill him in DBZ. They force me onto the platform after the glass moved up, they lock my wrists in shackles and place a oxygen mask on my mouth and nose. They place needles in my arms and wires to my head before closing the tube and it fills with liquid, not water but something heavier. I close my eyes seeing as the liquid irritated my eyes, I could slightly hear them talking but I could not make out what they are saying.

I try to move but nothing works, the heaviness of the pressure keeps me in place, that's when I feel liquid and fire shooting through my body, I try to scream but nothing comes out. I felt like I was going to burst into flames or explode from what they were doing to me, my mind was racing as they forced information into my mind. Fighting styles, weapon handling, interrogations, and so much more. I am not sure how long they have me in the tube when the liquid is finally drained out and they remove the wires and needles. They unshackle me and bring me down and bring me to another room, they force me into a chair and lock my wrists down.

“Now lets see if it vorked,” I hear Vlad say as he grabs my chin, “Open your eyes.”

Slowly I open my eyes, at first all I see is blue light and then Vlad comes into focus.

“It vorked! The tesseract has been successfully bonded to her DNA.”

“What!?” I yell, I know all about the tesseract and they dare bind it to my DNA.

I feel my anger rising more and more when suddenly a blue light burst out of my body causing them to fly back and my body feel as if it is on fire. They look at me in shock before smiling evilly.

“Take her to one of zhe holding rooms,” Vald orders.

Two men grab me and force me down several halls and into a small room, I try to run but they lock me in and again my body feels as if it is on fire. I have no idea how much time passes as I am moved from the small room to the training room to the lab. Eventually I lose track of everything, I haven’t had any interactions with people unless it is to be yelled at, hit and such. One day I hear people yelling and running around, I do not move from my spot as I hear guns being fired. Suddenly my door is forced open and Maria Fury runs in.

“Gabi, oh god,” Maria says removing my shackles.

“Don’t!” I yell but it is too late, my powers burst out.

Maria is slammed into the wall across from me, she looks at me shocked as I try to contain the power. She quickly takes the chain off the shackles before placing them back on my wrists.

“Those bastards are gonna pay,” she growls as she helps me out of the small room.

She takes me out of the building as she also fights against the members of the science group. She and the STRIKE team were able to capture Vlad and Violet seeing as they were the head of the group.

“What the fuck did you do to my friend?” Maria growls as she hold Vlad’s shirt.

“Ve made her better,” Vlad answers.

“You gave her powers, you will be tried for all of the experimentation you have done and the kidnapping of Gabrielle Stark.”

Vlad chuckles and that's when I realize he has a cyanide pill in his his mouth, before he could bite on it it glowed blue and flew out of his mouth and into my hand. I look at my hand to see it glowing, guess I accidently activated my powers.

“You damn bit-” Vlad starts before Maria hits him so hard he blacks out.

We soon arrive back in California where I see not only Rhodey and Pepper but I also see my brother.
“Tony!” I yell running at him.

“Izzy!” He yells seeing me.

I slow down and hug my brother.

“I missed you,” I say into his chest.

“I missed you too lil sis,” Tony says.

“Come on you too, lets get you to the hospital,” Pepper says as we get into the car.
“No,” Tony says.

“No? Tony,” Pepper says, “You have to go to the hospital.”

“I don't have to do anything. I was in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger......and the other one...”

“That's not going to happen.”

“It's not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference now.”

“Call for a press conference? What on earth for?”

“Yeah, Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first.”

“We have to at least get Gabrielle to the hospital,” Pepper says looking at me.

“No!” I say, “No....I’m fine.”

“You still have shackles are your wrists, let me take them off.”

“No!” I growl and I feel the burning in my eyes as Pepper and Tony look at me in shock.

“Izzy....your eyes...they’re blue.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say facing away.

We soon arrive at the place we are having the conference, I stay to the side as my brother talks.

“Hey, would it be alright if everyone sat down?” Tony says sliding down, “Will you sit down? That way you can see me, and I can...A little less formal...”

“What's up with the lovin'?” Rhodey whispers to me.

“Don't look at me,” I answer, “I don't know what he's up to.”

“I never got to say goodbye to dad. I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions that I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did... ...if he was conflicted,” Tony starts, “if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of a man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed......by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero-accountability.”

“What happened over there?” One reporter asks.

“I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I'm shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International......until such a time, as I can decide what the future of this company will be, what direction it should take, the one I'm comfortable with, and is consistent with the highest good of this country and the world.”

Everyone whispers and I look at my brother in total disbelief, did he really just do that? I see Obadiah and he does not look too pleased with Tony.

“What we should take away from this......is that Tony's back!” Obadiah says, “And he's healthier than ever. We are gonna have a little internal discussion and we'll get back to you with a follow-up.”

“Tony, that was insane,” I say as my brother and I stand near the arc reactor.

“I had to do it Izzy, you didn’t see what I did.”

“I understand Tony, our own weapon was used on us.”

“That... that went well,” Obadiah says walking up to us.

“Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?” Tony asks.

“Your head? What about my head? Your sister’s head? What do you think the over-under on a stock drop is gonna be?”

“Optimistically? 40 Points?”

“At minimum. Tony, we're a weapons manufacturer.”

“Obie, I just... I don't want the body count to be up...”

“That's what we do. We're iron mongers, we make weapons.”

“Our name is on facade of the building.”

“What we do keeps the world from falling into chaos.”

“Not based on what I saw. We're not doing a good enough job. We can do better, we're gonna do something else.”

“Oh, like what? You want us to make baby bottles?”

“Obadiah,” I growl and he backs off a bit knowing how I can get.

“I think we should take another look into Arc Reactor technology.”

“Oh, come on. The Arc Reactor, that's a publicity stunt! Tony, c'mon! We built that thing to shut the hippies up! And your sister!”

“Hey!” I yell.

“It works,” Tony says.

“Yeah, as a science project. The Arc was never cost-effective. We knew that before we built it. Arc Reactor technology, that's a dead end, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Am I right? We haven't had a breakthrough in that, in what... 30 years.”

“That's what they say.”

“Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?”

“Never mind who told me. Show me,” Obaidah says.

“Rhodey or Pepper,” Tony says.

“I wanna see it. Okay, Rhodey.”

“It works,” Tony says showing us his arc reactor in his chest.

“Listen to me, Tony. We are a team, do you understand? There's nothing we can't do if we stick together, like your father and I.”

“I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads up, okay? But if I had...”

“Tony, no more of this 'ready - fire - aim' business. Do you understand me?”

“That was dad's line.”

“You gotta let me handle this. We're gonna have to play whole different kind of ball now. We're gonna have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise me, both of you, that you're gonna lay low.”

Tony and I agree before heading back to home to clean up some more. As Tony gets Pepper to help him change arc reactors I am working on new tech to keep these powers at bay but a little bit easier to control.

“I could help you,” Tony says pulling a shirt over his head.

“You have no idea what they did, I sort of do so I will do it myself,” I say not looking up.

“To think they were able to bind that thing to your DNA, dad would be pissed.”

“Yea, Maria was pretty pissed too so I can only guess how mad dad would be.”

We stay silent for a minute will I put on the gloves and focus, soon blue fire is covering my hand.

“Wow, you did it sis.”

“Yea.....I did.”